Whatever’s On My Mind Wednesday- Toddler On A Plane Among Other Things

I’m getting pretty excited! One week from today I’ll be heading out to spend the summer with my mom! As ecstatic as I am for the summer, I’m not as enthusiastic about the trip itself. I was telling a blogger friend yesterday about it. It’ll take 3 planes, 36 hours spanning across 3 calendar days.

We have a 12 hour layover thank goodness it’s at night! We’ll be staying in a hotel so the plan is to rest up, shower and have breakfast and continue with the trip. Flying internationally with kids isn’t my favorite thing to do alone. The last time I did that, my oldest was 18 months and cried for 9 hours straight (how is that even possible?!). I did everything I could to comfort, please, soothe, and distract her but she wasn’t having any of it. People came up to me and cussed me out, everyone around me gave me dirty looks, and we weren’t the favorite passenger’s on the plane (understandably so!). Thank you to the French lady that hugged me and gave me words of encouragement that meant more to me in that moment than seems logical.

Don’t let this innocent face fool you! I have the power to wear out people much bigger than me!

After that experience, I’m not sure what to expect. When we came to Spain last year, we all travelled together and our youngest was 7 months. She did really good on the trip even with an unexpected situation that turned a 1 hour layover into 12. 18 months is a tricky age. She’s walking, doesn’t like to sit still, wants to get into everything, explores everything with her mouth, will play with various things within a small frame of time, can get distracted just as easily as she’s entertained…So sitting on the same plane for 12 hours with limited possibility of destroying exploring things probably won’t be very exciting to her. She takes a 3 hour nap so that only leaves 9 hours for me to keep her entertained enough to not go crazy because she’s confined to a small space for such a long time…That should be a breeze! I’ll be taking plenty of snacks along (food always makes her happy- this scenario warrants it!), thank goodness she watches her big sister and follows suit, and this will be one time that strangers will be glad that I stillbreastfeed nurse my 18 month old. If all else fails, that cures all of her problems!

Besides the trip itself, I’m really looking forward to this summer. The girls will have a great time at their grandparents house, we’ll be swimming, BBQing, hanging out and just enjoying the Arizona summer inferno weather. Besides seeing my mom and spending time with her I’m most excited about finishing my Life Coach certification course and…I’m going to get trained to be a Reiki practitioner! This summer is going to be full of learning and spiritual immersion and I can hardly wait!

I’m feeling spontaneous so I’d love to feature a randomly selected comment as a featured guest post. If you’d like to be in the selection for the guest post, just say so when you comment! You can choose between a travel post or a parenting post since those are the two topics covered today.

What are your summer plans? Any vacations or staycations planned? Where to? Who’s going? Is it an annual trip or first time? Any tips on travelling with toddlers? I’ve scoured Pinterest and have plenty of ideas and plans in place but I’m not above considering all options before heading into this situation again! No terror accounts please, we’ll swap horror stories after the trip 😉 Funny and happy cases are encouraged. I’d love to hear about your travel plans for the summer as near or far as they take you.

19 Replies to “Whatever’s On My Mind Wednesday- Toddler On A Plane Among Other Things”

Traveling with kids is always a challenge. But you know what? In the end you pay your tickets as much as all the other passengers do and if they have an issue with a child that is not comfortable then it’s their problem not yours. I found that taking them to the bathroom to be able to stand there and play with the water for a little bit helped. It also allows you to walk around without being judged. And if there’s any time you let them watch TV for as long as they want then it’s on a plane 😉 I also let them get up and stand in front of their seat, always making sure they did not play with the tray and therefor with the backrest of the person in front of me but rather with their seat. We played let’s fix the seat, stretch as high as you can and so on. I hope you will have a good trip. Don’t stress too much. I think you just have to give in…

Thank you. I hated being an inconvenience then I just felt bad because they were saying I was a bad mom as if I had done something to her… The water thing is a good idea, she loves to play with the bidet so that’s a trick I’ll keep up my sleeve. We are in one of the only section of 2 seats with no one in front of us on the long leg of the trip so that means the tv will be on the wall in front of us. My 18 month old didn’t watch tv so I’m hopeful that it will hold her attention…Yeah I was 23 last time with barely a year of mom experience and that was my first time in that situation so I think I just didn’t know what to do after 3 hours of crying. This time I’m hopeful I have some tools I didn’t have before and her sister is a great distraction 😉 Thanks for the encouragement! ❤

Good luck with the plane trip Niki but try not to stress too much. Just take lots of coloring books, snacks and before you know it you’ll be there. Sounds like you have a lot of wonderful things to look forward to this summer. Enjoy it all. 🙂

Sounds like it’s going to be a wonderful summer! (once you get there, lol). Seriously, best of luck on the plane. I think your little one is going to surprise you and it’ll be a breeze (almost)! When Talee was just about to turn two years old, she had her first plane ride (about four hours, she did fine). But when we were taking off, she looked out the window and said, “Too HIGH! Go HOME!!” We all giggled, including the flight attendant, who was sitting right next to us. But I felt bad for her, poor little girl 😦 Safe travels, Niki! 🙂

I’m trying not to stress about it. As the trip nears the nerves creep in but just momentarily as I push them away and realize this is a different experience and I’ll embrace the moment and do the best I can 🙂 I had to write about it because that always helps me release uneasy feelings 🙂 Oh my gosh that is so cute!

Ahhh, traveling with small children is extremely challenging. Have cards made up about the kindness challenge and if other passengers give you grief hand them a card and tell them you would be thrilled if they signed up.

hahahahahah I love that Bernadette! I read somewhere that a family did something special for passengers seated near them when they traveled with their small kids. I can’t remember the details but it was sort of a thanks in advance for understanding little kids will be…little kids 😉

Toddlers are totally unpredictable. Traveling with children can be challenging, but it is also worth it. I believe with a little patience and open mindedness, your experience with be even better with little adventurers by your side! I hope your trip went well! If you ever need some encouragement on why you should travel with your kids you can read this https://atravelingbond.com/blog/ 😉 Happy travels mama!

It actually went really really well! I was so surprised by how attentive and caring the aircrew was. I went into it with a very positive frame of mind and told myself to be patient at every opportunity especially when it was hard and it turned out great! It was a very long trip and I was happy once we arrived but it couldn’t have gone better, thanks for asking. 🙂

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